[hysan]

I want to agree with this sentiment, but after watching how gamedev has progressed in the mobile space, I can't find a good argument against this. Straight up cloning has become common practice in today's industry (assets are switched but with striking similarity to the original), yet I don't see as many people frowning on this practice anymore. At least outside of tech circles.

So yeah, to those of us who understand what goes into development, cloning is ethically reprehensible. But once you step outside of the tech world, I believe the ethics of this become much more murky.